Casino should be in Inner Harbor, not Arundel Mills

May 27, 2011

Imagine this. A high rise casino hotel on the Inner Harbor with multiple levels of slots, craps and table games, a disco, two or three restaurants, a spectacular dock with an indoor-outdoor restaurant where large yachts would park while their owners went into the casino to lose thousands of dollars, as well as all of the visiting professional athletes doing the same when they are in town, all of them having a great time leaving with a great impression of our city, along with the throngs of other visitors who would travel to Baltimore to experience this gem on our harbor with all of the other fine restaurants, shops, and (now 90 percent occupied) previously unsold condos in the surrounding area that would soon follow its success.

Unfortunately, our greedy incompetent politicians have been, to this point, incapable of envisioning a win-win deal where the risk-taking developers are rewarded with an above average return for their spectacular investment in our city that could have created ever growing commerce in the surrounding blocks, new good paying jobs and a large steady stream of tax revenue that would have both the state and city budgets balanced.

Meanwhile, our genius politicians have selected a completely packed parking lot at Arundel Mills Mall over what we could have had at the Inner Harbor. No wonder Maryland is currently ranked the 5th most unfriendly to business state in the U.S.